Lucknow: Senior striking doctors in Uttar Pradesh called off their strike late in the night at around 1am. After Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma) was invoked against them on Wednesday.
The act includes essential services in its charter and prohibits key employees in these services from striking. But junior doctors, that constitute a majority of them, are yet to take decision. They will meet on Thursday to finalize their strategy.
Earlier, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Wednesday took suo moto cognizance of the ongoing strike of doctors in the state and ordered a judicial probe into the matter.
Seeking to know from the state government about the action taken so far, the court also ordered the transfer of the inspector general, deputy inspector general and senior superintendent of police Kanpur.
The bench of justices Imtiyaz Murtaza and DK Upadhyaya ordered the formation of a judicial inquiry commission to look into the entire set of events at the Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College in Kanpur on February 28.
The court also asked the striking doctors to immediately return to work. Earlier, leader of opposition in the state assembly, Swamy Prasad Maurya, met the protesting doctors and alleged that the state was in the grip of goondaraj. He blamed the chief minister for the deaths of patients during the strike.
At a time when the doctors are being beaten up by police and the patients are dying, the chief minister is busy protecting his MLA and pet officials, the BSP leader said.
Junior doctors in many parts of the state were observing a strike from March 1 after a scuffle with a Samajwadi Party legislator from Kanpur led to a series of cane charges, police raids on hostels and mass resignations by doctors across the state.
Bureau Report
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